Last weekend was another encouraging one at the domestic box office with the dual releases of Mortal Kombat and Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train, both of which grossed north of $20 million and injected new life into theaters. Those films retained their top-two positioning in the current frame, but with Demon Slayer adding additional screens to its footprint, the anime swapped places with Mortal Kombat to take the top spot this go-round.

After opening to $21.14 million in its opening weekend, Funimation’s Demon Slayer dropped a steep 70% to bring in an estimated $6.42M in its sophomore frame from 1,905 locations – a count that includes several premium large format screens that were held by Mortal Kombat last weekend. That brings the R-rated anime to $32.22M after 11 days of release (including its opening-day gross two Thursdays ago), which already makes it the third highest-grossing anime film of all time in North America after 1999’s Pokemon: The First Movie ($85.74M) and 2000’s Pokemon the Movie 2000 ($43.76M). It surpassed the lifetime gross of 2019’s Dragon Ball Super: Broly ($30.71M) on Saturday.

Falling to second place, Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat took in an estimated $6.24M in its sophomore frame from 3,114 locations, a sharp drop of 73% from its opening gross of $23.3M. That’s a much steeper second-weekend descent than the 1995 adaptation of the long-running video game franchise, which dipped 55% in its second weekend (albeit in non-pandemic times). The video-game reboot now has $34.09M after ten days of release.

Compared with similar pandemic-era titles, the new Mortal Kombat’s sophomore slump is notably pronounced. In January, Warner Bros’ Wonder Woman 1984 fell 68% in its second weekend, while the studio’s Godzilla vs. Kong declined just 56% in its sophomore frame last month. All three were concurrently available on HBO Max.

The second-weekend declines of Demon Slayer and Mortal Kombat aren’t necessarily surprising given that both fall into traditionally front-loaded genres. Anime and video-game adaptations draw audiences made up largely of young males who tend to rush out on opening weekend, often leading to precipitous second-weekend declines for those genres.

Godzilla vs. Kong held steady in third place with an estimated $2.74M, a decline of 36% from last weekend. The Warner Bros. tentpole has $90.31M after five weeks of release.

Opening in fourth was the poorly-reviewed Open Road/Briarcliff horror title Separation, which debuted with a relatively disappointing $1.83M from 1,751 locations. That’s significantly less than The Unholy made in its debut frame in early April, when it grossed $3.15M from 1,850 theaters.

In fifth, Disney’s leggy Raya and the Last Dragon grossed an estimated $1.34M in its ninth weekend of release, bringing the total for the animated adventure to $41.58M.

Sixth place went to Universal’s Nobody, which brought in an estimated $1.26M in its sixth weekend of release. The Bob Odenkirk action title, which has had a relatively long tail in terms of pandemic box office, has $23.36M to date.

Sony/Screen Gems’ The Unholy took seventh place with an estimated $1.07M in its fifth weekend, bringing the total for the horror title to $13.13M.

Boasting the best per-screen average in the top 10 was Universal’s 10th anniversary re-release of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which took in an estimated $720,000 from just 152 locations for a per-screen average of $4,737 in eighth place.

Opening outside the top 10 in limited release was the BAFTA-nominated British comedy-drama Limbo, which took in an estimated $90,000 from 208 theaters.

OVERSEAS

Mortal Kombat grossed an estimated $3M from 39 international markets, bringing its overseas cume to $32.8M and its global total to $66.9M.

Godzilla vs. Kong brought in an estimated $2.7M from 42 markets for an international total of $325.1M and a global tally of $415.5M, including $185.5M in China.

The post WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: <em>Demon Slayer</em> Captures No. 1 Spot w/ $6.42M 2nd Weekend; <em>Mortal Kombat</em> Falls to Runner-Up Position w/ $6.24M appeared first on Boxoffice.